Australia needs to diplomatically disengage from our 'dangerous ally'
John Menadue

Australia needs to diplomatically disengage from our 'dangerous ally'

It seems likely that our prime minister will meet Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

Message from the editor
Catriona Jackson

Message from the editor

media politics usa world

It seemed almost too much to look back to the events of 9/11 in New York, when there is so much killing and grief swirling the globe now.

Essential APS reform – more to do
Andrew Podger

Essential APS reform – more to do

It is hard not to fear that the Albanese Government has decided not to pursue the further reforms to the APS it promised during its first term in office.


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The UN turns 80
Alison Broinowski

The UN turns 80

The most important agenda item for the United Nations General Assembly this month will be the future of Palestine. But Palestinian leaders will be unable to discuss it, because they will be absent.

Regional arts vital, but neglected, community resources
Don Edgar

Regional arts vital, but neglected, community resources

Australia has a unique network of regional art galleries which attract tourism, help local businesses thrive and contribute to overall regional development.

When Albanese thanked a wanted war criminal
Jaron Sutton

When Albanese thanked a wanted war criminal

Monday, 11 August 2025, was a dark day in Australian political history. On that day, a serving Australian prime minister publicly thanked a wanted war criminal.

US State Dept 'reviewing' foreigner comment on Kirk killing
Jessica Corbett

US State Dept 'reviewing' foreigner comment on Kirk killing

“The US Government, seeking to punish those who make light of the incident, is a complete betrayal of the First Amendment and spits in the face of the principle of free speech and debate,” said one lawyer.

Genocide – Armenia (1915-16) and Gaza (2023-25)
Adrian Lipscomb

Genocide – Armenia (1915-16) and Gaza (2023-25)

The term “genocide”, and its codification in international law, has its origins in the mass murder of Armenians in 1915–16.

School funding: Time to break the mould and build a new model
Lawrence Ingvarson

School funding: Time to break the mould and build a new model

A deep contradiction has developed between Australia’s values and the way our schools are funded.

The social smog of neoliberalism: How competition breeds violence and division
John Frew

The social smog of neoliberalism: How competition breeds violence and division

The Industrial Revolution transformed the material basis of human life. By harnessing energy and perfecting machines, engineers satisfied physical needs on a mass scale.

The politics of extermination
David Rosen

The politics of extermination

In 1895, Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, asserted: “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country … expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”

Latest on Palestine and Israel

The UN turns 80
Alison Broinowski

The UN turns 80

The most important agenda item for the United Nations General Assembly this month will be the future of Palestine. But Palestinian leaders will be unable to discuss it, because they will be absent.

When Albanese thanked a wanted war criminal
Jaron Sutton

When Albanese thanked a wanted war criminal

Monday, 11 August 2025, was a dark day in Australian political history. On that day, a serving Australian prime minister publicly thanked a wanted war criminal.

Genocide – Armenia (1915-16) and Gaza (2023-25)
Adrian Lipscomb

Genocide – Armenia (1915-16) and Gaza (2023-25)

The term “genocide”, and its codification in international law, has its origins in the mass murder of Armenians in 1915–16.

‘No safe place left’ as Israel moves to ethnically cleanse nearly 1m Gazans
Brett Wilkins

‘No safe place left’ as Israel moves to ethnically cleanse nearly 1m Gazans

“This is the latest chapter in the genocide that Israel is committing in Gaza and part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing engulfing the entire Gaza Strip,” said Oxfam International.

Palm Beach, Florida: latitude, 26.7 N – Gaza City: latitude, 31.5 N
Warwick McFadyen

Palm Beach, Florida: latitude, 26.7 N – Gaza City: latitude, 31.5 N

In Palm Beach, there lives a man who, when not living in the White House, enjoys the balm of temperate climes. He lives in a mansion, extravagant and luxurious. He wants for nothing.

Displacement and death in Gaza City as Israeli depravity continues
Ayman Qwaider

Displacement and death in Gaza City as Israeli depravity continues

This week, Israel killed my cousin Mohammed, a young and cheerful lawyer, along with his wife Myriam and their only seven-day-old baby, Jaber.

Israel and the Palestinians: Just one piece of the American plan
Howard Debenham

Israel and the Palestinians: Just one piece of the American plan

In his P&I article ’The Real death toll in Gaza’ posted on 5 September, John Menadue reminded us that Israel has become a criminal state and Now it is committing genocide.

The suppression of the Arab voice and the genocide in Gaza
Jaron Sutton

The suppression of the Arab voice and the genocide in Gaza

The United States’ unwavering military and political support for Israel is now accepted as the key enabling factor in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.


John Menadue's book on Israel's war against Gaza

Israel's war against Gaza

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.

Download the PDF

Latest on China

Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific
John Menadue

Climate change, not China, is the real threat in the South Pacific

Countries of the South Pacific have good reason to encourage China and other countries to assist them with infrastructure. And there is nothing that Australia should, or could, do about it.

A nation of narcissists
Patrick Lawrence

A nation of narcissists

Narcissism is the open-and-shut condition of the elites who fashion and execute American foreign policy. And they are utterly incapable of seeing their country as it is.

If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything
Fred Zhang

ANTI-CHINA MEDIA WATCH

If we want to win the Pacific, we must first listen – and stop blaming China for everything

A 9 September editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald, titled China and Australia in a high-speed race to win control of the Pacific, offered a vivid picture of the daily contest for influence in the region.


John Menadue

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More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

The real threat to the South Pacific

Rod Madgwick — Mt Victoria

Cogent and clear analysis and recipe for appropriate Australian policy in the Pacific. If we truly had the best interests of the Pacific nations at heart, we would encourage appropriate Chinese help to them. By pitting ourselves with the US against China, we encourage inappropriate injections of Chinese money and trinkets like flash SUVs to dubious recipients to buy favour.
Australia backing the wrong horse

Bob Pearce — Adelaide SĄ

It is no wonder that successive Australian Governments have been unable to reach an agreement on gambling advertisement reform. We, as a country, have a mug punter mentality, a culture of backing the wrong horse. We march blindly off to wars. Once again we are heading down a very dangerous path, betting our houses in a housing crisis and backing the wrong horse trotters in a steeplechase. We need to stop sticking our noses into the internal affairs of other countries at the behest of waning powers. We need to adopt a policy of friendship to everyone, helping...
Denying Armenian genocide sets the template

Simon Tatz — Melbourne

Jaron Sutton asks if atrocities in Gaza will be “effectively suppressed. If history is a guide, then yes. For more than a century, most nations have been co-opted to effectively suppress the Armenian and Ottoman Christian Genocide (also called Assyrian and Greek Genocide). Between 1913-23, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians and 250,000 to 500,000 Assyrians were slaughtered, along with an estimated 300,000 Pontic and Anatolian Greeks. Denial, including the refusal of mainstream media and policy commentators, reinforces the words of Adolf Hitler, who said on the eve of unleashing the Holocaust: I have placed my death-head formation...
Mysteriously superior or mysteriously doomed?

Richard Cullen — Middle Park, Victoria, 3206

Witheringly convincing. Electing a petulant, five-alarm snake oil salesman as President (who has assembled a like-minded governing cult within the White House) is not what has caused the dismal Western trajectory so well analysed in this article – but it has certainly accelerated this development. The US — and its Global West posse — are steadily looking more mysteriously ill-starred (even doomed), rather than mysteriously superior.



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Ukraine says it will continue targeting Russian infrastructure delivering troops, fuel and ammunition to front lines.
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Qatar seeks a collective response to Israel, which has attacked several other countries as it pummels Gaza.
Israeli army carries out its latest ground incursion in southern Syria
Israel has repeatedly entered Syria since the fall of al-Assad and has carried out air raids across the country.